Internship: Sensor Data Fusion and Machine Learning for Human Activity Detection

Develop a multimodal sensor-fusion system for smarter human activity and occupancy detection in buildings.

Are you a tech-savvy student interested in machine learning, IoT and sensor systems?

In this internship, you will combine data from Crownstone BLE devices with other sensors such as smartphone orientation data, acoustic cameras, and PIR/RF sensors to improve human activity detection.

Apply now for this internship!

About this internship

Smart-building sensors each provide only part of the picture.

BLE signals can indicate proximity, PIR can detect motion, acoustic systems can capture activity-related information, power usage can tell what for device is being used, and smartphones provide orientation or movement data.

Your goal is to investigate and develop methods to fuse and leverage these heterogeneous data streams for a more accurate and robust human activity and occupancy detection system.

A key focus is edge processing: extracting and combining useful information close to the sensors so the solution remains responsive, scalable and privacy-conscious.

What will you do and learn?

This internship provides an exciting opportunity to engage directly with innovative technology and receive mentorship from experienced data scientists and engineers. You’ll:

Research and select additional sensors that could add value to the HAC system
Design how measurements from these sensors can be acquired, timestamped and transferred into the HAC system for sensor fusion.
Prepare, synchronise and analyse multimodal data from Crownstone and complementary sensor systems.
Design, train and evaluate sensor-fusion and machine-learning approaches for human activity and occupancy detection.
Compare fused models with single-sensor baselines using metrics such as precision, recall and F1 score.
Explore how the fusion pipeline can run efficiently at the edge under compute, memory and communication constraints.
Test your approach in realistic building scenarios and document the main trade-offs and limitations.
Collaborate closely with our multidisciplinary team and experience the dynamics of startup innovation.

About you

You don’t need to have all the answers right away!

If you’re studying in a science or engineering discipline and enjoy programming and data analysis, you’ll feel right at home.

Ideally, you have the following qualifications:

Are currently studying computer science, AI, electrical engineering, or a related field.
In your final bachelor year or master’s
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
Interest in machine learning, signal processing, IoT or sensor fusion.
Experience with programming like C(++) and Python.

It’s a bonus if:

Have previously worked with sensor data fusion or IoT datasets.
Have experience with ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learnx).
Enjoy research-oriented projects and experimentation.

What can you expect from us

About Almende

Join Almende to work on innovations that make the world better and smarter through self-organization and technology.

We research complex problems, together with an international network of partners, and generate ideas to solve them. We also help entrepreneurs grow innovative ideas into successful companies.

Crownstone

This internship is at one of our daughter companies, namely Crownstone.

Crownstone develops BLE-based smart-building and indoor sensing technology.

For this project, Crownstone data will be combined with complementary sensors to create a genuinely multimodal edge-AI system.

Our culture

We are a small-scale and flat organization. The culture is informal, and communication lines are short. We don’t like office politics.

At Almende, employees are given the space to work independently. We empower our employees to voice their ideas. If you enjoy taking initiative, have many ideas, and wish to execute them, you’ll feel right at home.

What we offer

Real hands-on experience: Apply what you’ve learned in your studies to real-life situations
A peek into the international tech scene
Build a network with industry pros
Guidance and mentorship from people who’ve been in your shoes

The application process

Apply

Send us your resume at careers@almende.org

First meeting

We’ll first check if your profile fits. If yes, you’ll meet with the Head of the department.

Second meeting

Meet one of your future colleagues for an in-depth talk about the subject matter you applied for.

Offer

If there’s a mutual connection, we’ll make you a great offer. Hopefully, we can welcome you to our team soon!